Medical Marijuana Bill Fails In Senate Committee

Louisiana residents seeking medical marijuana access are out of luck after a Senate committee today rejected a bill that would legalize the plant for therapeutic use in the state.

A 1991 law already allows doctors to prescribe marijuana — it just doesn't provide for a way to distribute it.

"We sit here every day and we see people that just want options," said New Iberia Sen. Fred Mills, a pharmacist and the bill's author, at today's hearing. "What I'm looking for is to put a mechanism together (for) if that patient and that physician have that discussion, and they feel that this is a therapeutic option."

We sit here every day and we see people that just want options.

Speaking in support of the bill was 21-year-old Jacob Irving, an LSU student who suffers from spastic cerebral palsy. He said there are no treatments that would help his condition other than medicinal marijuana, and that trying to sleep is a pure nightmare for him because of the pain in his muscles.

"I have to sleep with my legs crossed and then lean back so that my hip flexers are stretched," said Irving. "Or I'll sleep in a full leg brace that stretches my legs. It sucks."

Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said he opposes the bill because he thinks the federal government needs to act on this first.

"Because law enforcement, the people who are charged with upholding the Constitution have taken an oath to uphold these laws," said Caldwell. "So where it's illegal...we have a problem."